The Cardinals won't face any of the strength-of-schedule criticism that they received during their lone voyage through the American Athletic Conference, which ultimately produced national champion Connecticut.

A strength of schedule rated in the 90s all season saddled Louisville when the NCAA tournament selection committee met in March and handed the Cards a No. 4 seed in the Big Dance.

The 2014-15 schedule looks like a top-10 slate. Consider the following games:

Home against Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina, Pittsburgh and Virginia

On the road at North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Virginia and Western Kentucky

Neutral site game against Minnesota (and Indiana, but the Hoosiers will struggle)

But in a season where Syracuse will take a step back, the UNC, Pitt and Virginia games are the toughest road contests. Western returns most of its key players and should be a Conference USA title contender, but Louisville will be a favorite there. Same goes for its neutral-site games against Indiana and Minnesota.

That means five of Louisville's eight toughest games next season are at home, where the Cards have a 66-9 record over the past four seasons. Duke, the preseason favorite to win the ACC title, only plays Louisville once, and the Blue Devils must travel to the KFC Yum! Center.

Duke has to play three of its four games against ACC title contenders on the road. The Blue Devils only see Louisville and Virginia once each, and both games are away from home.

Another intriguing aspect of the 2014-15 slate is tempo. Three of Louisville's four home-and-home partners -- Pitt, Virginia and Miami -- played some of the slowest basketball in the nation. In fact, Miami played at the slowest tempo in Division I basketball, and Virginia was fifth-slowest.

Meanwhile North Carolina played the 21st-fastest tempo. Louisville's pace ranked 64th this past season, and will likely rise in the ratings with a more athletic 2014-15 roster.

So now the question becomes, which Big Ten team does Louisville get in the Big Ten-ACC Challenge? Will it be Wisconsin, a major national title contender? Or what about the four teams expected to push Wisconsin for the Big Ten crown -- Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska and Ohio State?

The addition of any of those teams to the Cards' schedule makes it even tougher, especially if that game is on the road.

But the conclusion we can draw from today's ACC schedule release is that Louisville got a favorable slate. No one can argue that.

Best game: Duke at Louisville

Second best game(s): UNC at Louisville and Louisville at UNC

Louisville's favorite ACC opponent: Virginia Tech or Florida State. Neither will be easy to beat in 2014-15, but Louisville is 28-8 all-time against Virginia Tech and 30-9 vs. FSU.